Calgary Herald - It seems too many people must have taken that recent Kanye West/Spike Jonze film a little too seriously. So, let us clear up a few things for you.

First of all, Kanye West is not dead.

West is alive and well — contrary to a false report that led to “Kanye West died” becoming one of Google Trends most-searched topics Wednesday. “RIP Kanye West” could also be found in the trending topics of Twitter.

According to MTV (via security blog Sophos.com), the reports of West's demise were traced back to a fake news item, possibly originating on 4chan.org, that claimed the rapper was killed in "a bizarre car crash in Los Angeles."

West himself has yet to comment, but his girlfriend — model Amber Rose — was understandably freaked out by the hoax, and responded via Twitter.

"This 'RIP Kanye West' topic is not funny and it's NOT TRUE! He has people like myself and his family that love him very much," she wrote. "It's in extreme poor taste to have that as a trendy topic. It's totally disrespectful to make up a story like this we're all human . . . and we all make mistakes and to say someone died cuz of a mistake is ridiculous. You wouldn't want someone to say that about you."

But West won’t be alone in understanding what it's like to live through a death hoax — Jeff Goldblum, Emma Watson, Miley Cyrus, Matt Damon and Natalie Portman have all been victims of apparent premature passing.

Dose.ca